The Best Birthday
by Fireblade K'Chona
Summary: I used to write these little oneshots on my birthday every year, but now I am too lazy to continue...hope you like them anyway.
1. Chapter 1

_This is from 2003. Just a bitty rewrite to make it nicer to read. I'm leaving the notes I wrote then as is._

It's my birthday today! Hooray! -does happy dance- I'm 14!

So this is what I'd like for my birthday present if I lived in Valdemar...

No, this isn't my family. This person lives on a farm and has lotsa sibs, not just one, like me.

* * *

I tumbled out of bed on what I considered the first morning of _true_ fall, when the leaves began to turn-my birthday. Birds sang outside the window and a crisp chill in the air tickled me as I climbed into my clothes.

I ran down the stairs and found my family sitting around the table-Mother, Father, and every sibling, smiling at me-the habitually latest riser of the family.

The place of honor was empty-I slid into the normally vacant seat.

I ate a delicious breakfast, savoring my first bites as a fourteen-year-old.

Heading outside, I looked at the view from the hill where my house sat-red and golden trees, with a few evergreens interspersed between them, and the fields sun-gold with rippling ripe wheat...

I could smell fresh bread in the oven, the crispness of the air, the herbs from my mother's garden, and just underneath it, the light tang of fall.

It was a perfect day.

I heard hoofbeats coming up the pounded dirt road on the side of the house, screened by a hedge. _I wonder who that could be..._

I looked eagerly. Maybe it was my cousins, coming for a surprise visit! I stepped outside to get a better vantage point, expecting to wave hello to my cousins...

Instead, an impossibly graceful white horse paced into the yard. Bells chimed gently, a counterpoint to the ring of his hooves as he stepped onto the paved front path.

His mane rippled against his neck as he turned his head to look at me.

I fell into crystalline blue eyes, fell forever and ever into pools of light and love and trust and hope-

_:I am Aranthe. I Choose you, sister of my heart, I Choose you...:_

* * *

-is happy-

Reviews are loved!

-Fireblade K'Chona _and Fireblade from 2004!_


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Valdemar, nor do I own the concept of Hawkbrothers!

I wrote the last one last year, on my fourteenth birthday. I will continue the tradition of writing in "The Best Birthday", I suppose, because it's fun and doesn't take long to write!

And yes, it's my birthday today! WHEEEE! -is very, very happy because she got birthday-grammed!-

(Birthday-grams are this thing at my school where the vocal ensemble comes and sings you happy birthday all in harmony...the look on my face must've been priceless!)

Onto the story!

* * *

Owlstar climbed carefully down from her ekele, testing her footing as she skirted the stairs and dropped to the ground. A scout-in-training, she wanted to practice treewalking whenever possible. She landed with hardly a sound on the earth below the tree and took a breath of the flower-scented air of K'Chona Vale.

_Celebration tonight!_ she thought, happily, taking the right-hand path with an extra spring in her step. Her friends had gathered and were throwing her a party-technically, it was a surprise, but Owlstar had overhead some of the _hertasi_ discussing it.

It was a bright fall day, slightly crisp even inside the Vale. Owlstar took a deep breath of the air, tasting under the perfume of the flowers the bite of fall. The Veil would be strengthened soon, to keep the chill from the air, but these first true days of autumn, where there was just a slight tang in the air of chill, were wonderfully.

Owlstar wandered down the paths of the Vale, debating inside herself whether or not to go lounge in the hot springs like "those indolent mages," as her scout-group-in-training teased the magic-apprentices.

She sensed rather than heard the rush of wings behind her, and politely stepped to one side, as was the etiquette for a Hawkbrother walking down one of these narrow paths, turning to see whose bird it was at the same time-

A fledgling snowy owl bondbird was wobbling through the air, obviously intent on Owlstar. As if in a dream, she raised her arm, and the bird settled gratefully-but gently-on her wrist, luminous golden eyes looking curiously into Owlstar's own...

_:I Pren, you Star,: _said the white owl decisively, _:I yours.:

* * *

_

Wasn't that cute? I liked it a lot!

Reviews make wonderful birthday presents! -hint, hint-

So long, farewell, working on updates for your reading pleasure! (But not tonight, I get to see Capitol Steps!)

-Fireblade K'Chona


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